1,400 Migrant Workers Detained in Raid on Illegal Hostel

The police detained almost 1,400 Tajik and Uzbek workers during a raid at an illegally built hostel in southeast Moscow, a news report said Friday.

Officers from the Federal Migration Service and the Federal Drug Control Service Thursday carried out the raid on the premises, located on Novokhokhlovskaya Ulitsa near the Tekstilshchiki metro station, Interfax reported.

"As a result of the operation 1,380 foreign nationals were escorted to local police stations for identification and to check their involvement in any previously committed crimes," a police spokesman said.

He said 1,310 reports had been issued, citing the workers for administrative violations related either to their illegal entry to Russia or violation of the terms of their stay.

A police sources said that instead of building a business and entertainment center with a hotel, as had been planned, the Turkish construction firm Enka built housing for foreign workers.

The firm lodged foreign citizens in 13 two- or three-story blocks surrounded by a metal fence.

The police raid revealed that the workers had been living in small rooms shared by eight to 10 people had and slept in bunk beds. Emergency exits in sleeping quarters were locked, while hallways were blocked with furniture.